Thread: China Riots Erupt as Trump Tariffs Hit Factories

China Riots Erupt as Trump Tariffs Hit Factories

By Jim Thomas | Thursday, 01 May 2025 07:49 PM EDT

Video at the page link China Riots Erupt as Trump Tariffs Hit Factories | Newsmax.com

Widespread unrest has erupted across China as President Donald Trump's steep tariffs devastate the nation's export-driven economy, triggering factory closures, unpaid wages, and massive protests by workers, The Daily Caller reported.

Riots and mass protests are spreading across China as economic fallout from Trump's tariffs pushes the nation's manufacturing sector to the brink, shuttering factories and leaving millions of workers without pay.
From industrial zones near Shanghai to the remote edges of Inner Mongolia, workers have taken to the streets demanding back pay and denouncing mass layoffs. The unrest comes amid a sharp drop in Chinese export orders — now at their lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

Outside an LED light manufacturing facility near Shanghai, thousands of workers protested this week over unpaid wages dating back to January. In central China's Dao County, another protest erupted outside a sporting goods store that had abruptly closed its doors without compensating its employees.
In Tongliao, a city in the northeast, construction workers climbed onto rooftops and threatened suicide if wages weren't delivered.
"They were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody's ever ripped us off," Trump said. "They're not doing that anymore."
Goldman Sachs estimates that as many as 16 million jobs could be lost in China if the tariffs continue to erode the country's industrial base.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Huang Deming, a garment exporter in southern China, has already laid off 30% of his staff after losing three U.S. clients. Qian Xichao, a textile factory manager, described cutthroat conditions in the domestic market.
"To be frank, personally speaking, all we can do is go out and look for new opportunities," Qian told the Journal.
The labor unrest mirrors the protests in 2022 during President Xi Jinping's strict COVID-19 lockdowns. At the time, government forces suppressed demonstrations through violent crackdowns. Analysts expect similar responses now as economic instability threatens the regime's control.

"Xi today has the same mentality as Mao. His bottom line is that no major crisis will be allowed to endanger his hold on power," a Chinese government adviser told the Journal.
The Trump administration's tariffs — reaching as high as 145% on Chinese goods — have sharply curtailed trade flows. CBS News reports that major U.S. retailers are already warning of impending supply shortages.
China has imposed up to 125% tariffs on American exports but is quietly exempting certain U.S. products, informing companies discreetly to mitigate the impact of the trade war with Washington.
Meanwhile, at the Port of Los Angeles, which handles roughly 40% of all Asian imports, container volumes decreased by 10% last week compared to the same period a year earlier.
"We are now beginning to see the flow of cargo to the Port of Los Angeles slow," said Eugene Seroka, the port's executive director, during an April 24 meeting of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners. "It's my prediction that in two weeks time, arrivals will drop by 35%," he added.
While other nations have received a 90-day pause on the tariffs as they negotiate with the U.S., China remains excluded from any such reprieve.
Jim Thomas ✉

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China Riots Erupt as Trump Tariffs Hit Factories | Newsmax.com

Factory closures, mass layoffs hit China’s manufacturing sector amid U.S. trade war

05/03/2025 // Ramon Tomey // 390 Views

Tags: big government, Bubble, chaos, China, Collapse, debt bomb, debt collapse, Donald Trump, factory closures, manufacturing sector, market crash, money supply, risk, supply chain, tariffs, trade war, unsold goods, US, worker protests

• China's economy faces severe pressure as U.S. tariffs (including a 145 percent levy on some imports) trigger factory closures, mass layoffs and a surge in worker protests, particularly in export-heavy regions like Guangdong and Zhejiang.
• Hundreds of workers across Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and other provinces are protesting unpaid wages and benefits, with some resorting to extreme measures like rooftop protests. Even major firms like BYD face strikes over pay cuts.
• Warehouses are overflowing with discounted exports (e.g., apparel, electronics) now being sold domestically for pennies, undermining profitability and worsening the economic downturn.
• Beijing offers vague promises (e.g., five percent GDP growth targets) and blames the U.S. for "bullying," but lacks concrete solutions. The "dual circulation" strategy to boost domestic demand is failing as exports collapse.
• With 16 million jobs at risk, labor protests now make up 41 percent of all demonstrations (per Freedom House). New U.S. tariffs (e.g., 120 percent on small-value imports) threaten further damage, leaving China's economy and workers in dire straits.

China's economy – already struggling with sluggish growth and weak consumer confidence – is facing mounting pressure as U.S. tariffs trigger factory closures, mass layoffs and a surge in worker protests.
Across industrial hubs from Sichuan to Inner Mongolia, hundreds of workers have taken to the streets demanding unpaid wages. Meanwhile, manufacturers scramble to offload unsold goods at steep discounts. The escalating trade conflict between Washington and Beijing has exposed vulnerabilities in China's export-dependent economy, with analysts warning that up to 16 million jobs could be at risk.
The latest wave of U.S. tariffs – including a 145 percent levy on Chinese imports – has dealt a severe blow to key sectors such as electronics, apparel, and chemicals. Factories in export-heavy provinces like Guangdong and Zhejiang have suspended operations, issuing "holiday notices" to workers as orders dry up. (Related: China's plastics industry faces closure crisis as U.S. ethane tariffs ignite economic fallout.)
Videos circulating on Chinese social media show warehouses overflowing with unsold merchandise, from yoga pants to home appliances, now being sold domestically for pennies on the dollar. "Any piece of clothing here could sell for $100 in the U.S., but now it's being sold by the ton for a few cents," lamented one user on Douyin, China's version of TikTok.
It's not just companies that are bearing the brunt of tariffs; the unrest among workers is intensifying. Even major firms like electric vehicle giant BYD have faced strikes over pay cuts and broken promises.
In Sichuan, employees at a circuit board manufacturer say they haven’t received wages or social security benefits since 2023. Construction workers at the city of Tongliao in Inner Mongolia threatened to jump from the rooftops of the buildings they were erecting unless back pay was delivered.
In Shaanxi province, migrant laborers say they haven’t been paid since February 2025. At the Guangxin Sports Goods factory in Hunan, over 100 women were dismissed without severance – allegedly for "reaching retirement age."
How U.S. tariffs are crushing China's economy

Ji Feng, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, told Radio Free Asia that many business owners are trapped in a cycle of debt and desperation. "Some bosses even said they would rather go to jail than do anything," he said.
Beijing's response has been a mix of defiance and vague promises. Chinese President Xi Jinping hinted at policy adjustments, but offered no concrete solutions beyond accusing the U.S. of "bullying." Chinese Premier Li Qiang, meanwhile, pledged five percent GDP growth and job creation – targets that seem increasingly unrealistic.
The tariffs have also undercut China's "dual circulation" strategy, which aimed to reduce reliance on foreign markets. With domestic demand weak and exports collapsing, economists warn the economy is running out of lifelines.
The human toll is stark, with already vulnerable migrant workers bearing the brunt. As protests multiply, the government’s grip on dissent is being tested. Freedom House reported that 41 percent of all protests in late 2024 were labor-related.
For now, the trade war shows no signs of easing – with a new 120 percent tariff on small-value imports set to take effect soon. This new levy will further cripple e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu.
While U.S. businesses also face losses, China's export sector and the workers who depend on it are in far direr straits. With factories shuttering and unrest growing, Beijing's economic challenges are only beginning.
SupplyChainWarning.com has more similar stories.
Watch John Perkins elaborating on the economic impact of U.S.-China trade relations in this clip from the "Health Ranger Report."

This video is from the Brighteon Highlights channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:

Trade war shockwaves hit U.S. ports as Chinese imports plummet, experts warn of shelves going "empty".
U.S.-China trade war shows no signs of cooling amid conflicting claims, economic toll rises.
Trump floats plan to replace income tax with tariff revenue.
Sources include:
Breitbart.com
RFA.org 1
RFA.org 2
Brighteon.com

Factory closures, mass layoffs hit China’s manufacturing sector amid U.S. trade war – NaturalNews.com

Big Bad Putin? Covid Kingdom China Is the World’s Real Boogeyman

Big Bad Putin? Covid Kingdom China Is the World’s Real Boogeyman

by Selwyn Duke May 3, 2025

Burak Can Oztas/iStock/Getty Images Plus

“China is going to eat our lunch?” Joe Biden asked dismissively on the campaign trail in 2019. “Come on, man…. They’re not competition for us.” The Trump administration has taken a very different posture. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that Beijing is undertaking the “fastest, most rapid, most expansive peacetime military buildup in history” and called it “the single greatest challenge this nation has ever faced.” And, of course, President Trump has targeted China with tariffs that have become a bone of contention domestically.
Of course, some good, intelligent people, such as economist Thomas Sowell, consider the tariff strategy misguided. But wherever we stand and whatever the truth on that, a striking reality is inescapable.
China is not just our main geopolitical adversary; rather, it’s the most fearsome and foreign of foreign threats.

It is, in fact, from the Western perspective, the closest thing there is to an aggressive, planet-imperiling, alien civilization on Earth.
They Do Not Come in Peace

That Biden and many of his co-ideologists minimize the Chinese threat is replete with irony. (Though many of them do make money off Beijing.) Just consider, for instance, Barack Obama’s comment to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in a 2012 debate. “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back,” he said. He was responding to Romney’s claim that Russia is our main geopolitical foe. Now, however, all Obama’s friends seem to love this ’80s foreign policy.
In reality, though, Russia’s economy is one-eighth the size of China’s. So with military power flowing from economic power, that Putin could somehow reconstitute the Soviet empire doesn’t seem very realistic. Moreover, Russia isn’t successfully censoring our movies and putting its propaganda in our schools. China is. (Really. Click here, here, and here.)
Then, the word “fascism” is bandied about much today; we hear that it’s a threat imperiling us. Children also learn that we fought WWII to keep the world safe from fascism. Yet what is the most powerful fascist country to ever exist?
China.
Oh, “It’s communist,” you say? That’s marketing by Beijing; it’s the regime’s claim to legitimacy. But China began instituting free-market reforms decades ago, and today its economy is mostly market-driven. The government has a hand in everything, though, making it align nicely with Benito Mussolini’s definition of fascism. To wit: “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
As to this, note that Beijing law dictates that every Chinese company and all China’s 1.4 billion citizens are required to, when the government demands it, engage in spying. It spies on its own people, too, as Beijing aims to become the world’s first all-seeing state. (I.e., there may be 700 million surveillance cameras countrywide. Shanghai alone has approximately 5,000 per square mile.)
Covid-19 was used, too, as a pretext to increase this surveillance further. This brings us to the next topic.
Covid Kingdom

One silver lining in the Covid cloud is that it tarnished China’s reputation, waking up many to the Beijing threat. Why, some observers even suspect that China released the virus purposely. For example, writing at American Thinker, James Zumwalt proposed this on Wednesday — then went further. Citing a 2003 speech allegedly delivered by then-Chinese Defense Minister General Chi Haotian, he wrote that

Chi recognized his country’s need for more territory for its expanding population. Incredibly, he laid out a plan for meeting this need by “colonizing” America. But how could this possibly be achieved? The seed of his plan — planted 22 years ago — was to seek development of a genetically modified virus that was capable of being transmitted primarily to Caucasians only!

To be clear, this information’s provenance is questionable; the speech may be mythical, in fact. And the claim of intentional release — also made by Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan in 2020 — is unproven. More plausible is the theory that, once SARS-CoV-2 began rampaging through China, the government facilitated its spread beyond its borders. “Why should only China be damaged by it?” was the alleged thinking.
“Know Thy Enemy” — Sun Tzu

Whatever the truth, suspicion is warranted. China is the Earth’s most godless nation, literally, led by a cutthroat regime. Furthermore, it still reflects history’s default mentality: considering one’s own culture and race superior. In fact, Beijing apparently fancies world dominance its birthright.
The Telegraph addressed this attitude in the 2003 article “The giant who lives at 590 Yongia Road,” writing:

Nothing in human history compares with the spellbinding phenomenon of Chinese genius, Chinese vision and a uniquely Chinese scale being simultaneously harnessed towards the one goal: the restoration of Chinese hegemony over the known world. This is the position which all Chinese leaders, from the Emperor Ch’in to Mao, have felt to be rightfully theirs.
… One would never judge modern Rome’s potential by the precedents set by the Caesars, nor use the conduct of the Aztecs as a useful guide to Peru’s intentions. But China is different, because it has repeatedly been in the forefront of human endeavour; and its multi-millennia-long continuities are deeply embedded within the consciousness of those who govern it. Moreover, the Chinese are more than nationalistic; they are a people for whom the concept of Herrenvolk [“Master Race”] is not some passing and malign idiosyncrasy, but a defining condition of identity. To their eyes we are barbarians whose historical eminence is due entirely to our infuriating mastery of the savage arts of war.
… Racial superciliousness remains deep within the character of the Chinese people….

Now perhaps we understand why Napoleon Bonaparte warned, “China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.”
As for the current trade conflict, Beijing may lose the battle. But while Adolf Hitler imagined a “Thousand-Year Reich,” China’s realm has lasted 4,000 years already. She’s not going anywhere, and should be taken very, very seriously.

Big Bad Putin? Covid Kingdom China Is the World’s Real Boogeyman - The New American